· Joey Logano started ninth in the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion in Sunday afternoons Can-Am 500 at ISM Raceway, the penultimate race of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series Season. Logano entered the event as the only driver locked in to Ford Championship Weekend by virtue of his win at Martinsville Speedway in the first race of the Round of 8.

· Through the first stage, Logano battled a Ford Fusion that was loose on corner entry and too tight to turn the center of the corner, resulting in him dropping outside of the top-10 by lap 21. On the first pit stop of the afternoon, crew chief Todd Gordon called for a major air pressure adjustment, two rounds of wedge with four tires and fuel.

· Unfortunately, Logano’s afternoon was cut short at lap 97 when a cut left rear tire resulted in contact with the front-stretch wall, ending the day for the Shell-Pennzoil crew before they were able to see if the adjustments on the first stop improved the handling of the Ford Fusion.

 

“There’s nothing my team could do different, so there’s really nothing to get depressed about. We’re just staying confident and keeping our heads high because I still feel like we’ve got a great shot at winning this championship when we get to Miami. This doesn’t affect anything. We’d be out. You can’t afford to have that happen in this Round of 8. We won Martinsville and that’s the reason why we’re going to race at Miami. It is what it is. We’ll move on from this. There’s not much we can do about a tire going flat. It is what it is. We’ll just go to Miami and race for a championship.”